‘White Widow alive and well’ in Somalia: report

Kenyan detectives told a court in August that they had lost the trail of Lewthwaite, suggesting the fugitive may have taken another identity.

Dubbed the “White Widow,” Samantha Lewthwaite – a British convert to Islam who is said to have been involved in the Kenya mall attack last year – is reportedly living in Somalia with her jihadist husband, Marco Costa, a wanted Al-Qaeda suspect, the Daily Mail quoted Kenyan sources as saying.

The sources said Lewthwaite was ‘alive and well’ and living in the south Somalia, the daily reported.

The paper said it had obtained a forged Mozambican passport bearing Costa’s picture. The document clearly identifies him as Jamal Salim, who the paper said was on the run from Kenyan police since he shot and killed two police officers in Nairobi in 2011.

Lewthwaite has previously used a false South African passport and alias.

The couple, according to the Daily Mail, also appears in a selfie taken at their home, adding that police are using these and pictures of their two children as part of a countrywide manhunt for the suspects.

Kenyan detectives told a court in August that they had lost the trail of Lewthwaite, suggesting the fugitive may have taken another identity.

Lewthwaite, 30, is the widow of Germaine Lindsay, a suicide bomber who took part in the July 7, 2005, attack in London and is said to have been involved in the September 2013 attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya that resulted in more than 60 deaths.

The Daily Mail said a comprehensive file on Lewthwaite showed she had married Salim in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2008 after meeting him through a Muslim hate cleric she regularly visited in prison in the United Kingdom, following her first husband’s death.

The newspaper quoted counter-terrorism sources in Kenya as saying they had updated Lewthwaite’s profile in response to claims from a Moscow news agency earlier this week that she had been killed by sniper fire while fighting in the Crimea.

Intelligence authorities in Kenya are demanding to see Lewthwaite’s body and say they refuse to believe she has been part of any militia outside East Africa, the Daily Mail said.

Lewthwaite has been linked to Somalian Islamist militant group al-Shabaab, according to ITV News.

Interpol issued a “Red Notice” warrant for her arrest shortly after the attacks in Kenya. The international police agency notice said Lewthwaite is wanted by Kenya on charges of possession of explosives and conspiracy to commit a felony dating back to December 2011.